Just got a gut feeling we're really going to be pounded this winter with snow possible winds. There's a chill in the air already, and Indian Summer thoughts seem long gone. While getting into my car, an SUV rolled by and you could hear his Studs already on. I'm also wondering if we'll get any wind storms his October into November, clouds looked ominous today. I'm stocking up on batteries & extra food incase I get stuck at home. What do you think will happen between now and April 2008 weather related?

I hope for lots of snow down to the valley floor.

The Land Cruiser is running again and I want to play!

No ice though. It doesn't matter how many wheel drive you have, ice is not for driving on. It's for mixing with drinks!

Just heard the low temperature last night in Burns was 20 degrees and Vancouver had a funnel cloud spotted today.

I heard a news story that El Nino, or La Nino, or whatever Nino it is was falling into place and would give the NW a tough winter.

I just want it to stay warm long enough for my late fall corn crop to come in. They are about 3/4 of the way to picking, but a freeze will do them in.

Then, let the snow come. I've got studded snow tires for the '67 Dart, so I'm good to go.

I do need to go dig my schneegummireifen out of the garage at home and set them up on the Bronco within the month.........

Craig--
Where was the tornado spotted??

today was 92 on my thermometer... not bad for East Ohio in October tomatoes peppers and Zuchinni still churning along go tribe, beat yanks..... go Angels! I have tix to the Championship series!

Motozak2: Take a look at that Funnel Cloud below.

http://www.katu.com/news/10248351.html

Lot's of rain folks....
Remember 96'???? Floods o' plenty....
Maybe this year downtown might flood???? The city needs a good enema.

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1996/es202/flood.html

Trixter: Man! Those are some worrisome pictures!

Thanks Craig and Trix. Ominous.

The top 64 Oregon tornadoes:

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/paststorms/tornado.php

Speaking of 1996:

"January 1996--Lincoln City. Oregon tornadoes are reported chiefly in the Willamette Valley and in flatlands of eastern Oregon; only rarely do they affect the Oregon coast. In 1996, an apparent tornado struck the coasts near Lincoln City. There were no eyewitnesses, since this occurred at night, but the damage which resulted makes it evident that a tornado did occur. An intense electrical storm, one of the strongest in recent years, occurred late one January night. Thunder, lightning, and high winds lasted for several hours. The next day, several damage reports were received by the Lincoln City police. In the parking lot of a manufactured home facility, a trailer was lifted completely off the ground and dropped on the trailer adjacent to it. Several windows were shattered, the glass exploding outward as if the result of extremely low outside pressure. Near the ocean, a number of fish were apparently pulled from the ocean and dropped onto a parking lot. Based on the nature of the reports, it appears that a tornado passed through Lincoln City that night."

http://www.ocs.orst.edu/pub/reports/book/Tornado.html

The longtime local alarm is going off for me too. It may be a very woolly few months -- literally. Bad things can happen when we start out winter with an unusually big snow pack. It gets even more interesting with accumulations to the valley floor. Follow that up with a week or two of heavy rains and a freezing level above 5,000 feet. That wicked formula can get all of our feet more than a little wet. Throw in high winds and you have a recipe for disaster. I may want to tie that canoe to the back porch. ;0)

I never knew there was SO much on Oregon Tornados!

Just got a gut feeling we're really going to be pounded this winter with snow possible winds.
Craig, it wouldn't surprise me if based on your statements that someone in a newsroom somewhere is already planning who's going up to Sylvan, who's being stationed out in Troutdale, etc., already.

1996 was a riot... snow, ice and cold, followed by the flood that turned downtown Tualatin into part of the river its named after. My other "favorite" is January 2004 - nobody predicted it, we had the snow on New Years' Day, it melted and everyone seemed to congratulate everyone else that it was on a holiday - next week - SURPRISE! for almost the entire week - and heads were on sticks everywhere from the city offices to TriMet.
Other honorable mentions - 1990 or 1991 (I was really young then, I only remember the ice covering everything), and Feb. 1995.

Let not for get the Columbus Day Storm of 1962. I hear the storm in the Pacific right now headed for British Columbia is packing even more Powerful winds !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day_Storm_of_1962

The weather guy on KOIN last night was practically peeing his pants last night he was so excited about this one coming in. Looks like we'll be getting some winds, but as Craig said the main blast is going to BC, and it was HUGE.

Maybe we'll see someone up on the Sylvan overpass or in Troutdale on the news tonight? Ho-hum. All we need now is some Christmas music for Craig!

It's really quite outside right now. Not a lot of birds flying around and the squirrels are nowhere to be seen.....
Storms a comin' small or large the animals know it....

"Other honorable mentions - 1990 or 1991 (I was really young then, I only remember the ice covering everything), and Feb. 1995."

Oh man......December '90 or '91 (I can't remember which it was specifically; I was only in K or first grade then!) my folks and I were headed to my Grandmother's house in the "Vista Del Rio" development off 39th (just off the south end of 164th, in fact at that time you could even see Hiway 14 from there!) and a good, thick layer of ice was already on the roads.

At that time, note, you couldn't access VDR by going through the housing area (hadn't been built yet)--you had to access it via 39th off 164th, going down one hill and then up another! Thankfully Father had the chains on the car (a blue '84 Subaru GL) but going down Macgillivary broved to be quite a slide-fest.

Typically we would head down 18th to access 164th to get to Gran's. Needless to say, once you get past Evergreen, 18th is pretty much all hills. MacG is practically all level ground, thankfully.

Needless to say, from the force of all the sliding around in the car, the Jello stuff Mum made for dessert was practically ruined................

Why didn't you just cut through hearthwood to mill plain then over to 164th?

Because from where we lived at the time (the Landover Apartments) MacG via 138th would have been the most direct route to SE 39th, from what I remember, anyways. (In a way it still is, except if you were to try and access SE 39th via MacG today, you'd literally run into a brick wall!! ;o)

Also the Subaru didn't exactly have the greatest handling in the world for that kind of weather on any form of incline or grade, it seemed (still doesn't.) It has four wheel drive, but that has continually proven to be a joke; even getting stuck in a mud patch around the Trapper Creek Wilderness area in Gifford Pinchot as recently as 2000 required two of us to try and push the car out while another drove!!

Well we just had our first power outage this afternoon around 2:40pm. West Slope was dark. The Post Office windows were shut down. Signals out.

Got in my car to drive to where power was on in Beaverton and had a late lunch. Stopped in at G.I. Joe's for more batteries but got home and the lights were on.

JOE'S!!!!!
j/k...

I lived on St Croix for 3 years, the island lost power at least twice a month. Didn't really cause many problems, all the hotels had backup generators, and most business did.

Trixter: It'll always be "G.I. Joe's" to me, just like "Kentucky Fried Chicken" or "Dairy Queen".

Nwokie: I don't have a generator!!!!!

Craig add "Vancouver Mall" to the list!

Mark my words . . . "Joe's" is dead meat. They'll be history in no time at all. The new owners are taking a gamble by investing in dozens of new stores and enlargement of the distribution center. If the gamble fails, they'll bury GI Joe's at Willamette National Cementary.

Notice the phasing out of Auto merchandising? They're moving to Sports/Outdoors only -- one of the most economy dependent retail marketing genre. GI Joes has a history of operating underperforming stores, closing new stores and takeover of operation by the bank of poor managed stores (Federal Way).

Sell your shares!

Their going to blow it! (as stated above!)

With Sportsman's Warehouse in Clackamas and Vancouver, they don't stand a chance if they go sports/outdoors only.

They are opening a Cabela's in Lacy, WA, just outside of Olympia which will give Sportsman's Warehouse a run for their money. It's well worth the 1-1/2 hour drive!

The biggest draw for me at (GI)Joe's is the cashiers...almost always young and pretty. I'm talking about the girls, FYI.

But to be fair, the guys look good too. (I'm an equal opportunity sexist)

No kidding! She was a "Cutie" alright. I almost went back for more batteries!

Ahem, I dated and went steady with a GI Joe's girl for 2 years! True story!

I went into G.I. Joe's (yes, at 23 even I am an old-timer) recently to inquire about having the bottom-bracket on the Mongoose rebuilt. It's getting worn out to the point you can hear a loud metallic "scraping" noise emanating from it whenever I pedal.

Their mention of $40/hour just for labour (new parts, if required, are NOT included in that quote!) only ended up driving me off!

I was going to take the Goose to Schroeder's Schwinn today but he doesn't seem to be around...........

If GI Schmoe's keeps charging prices like that for bike service, that department may likely meet the same fate the Automotive section is apparently meeting (if not already met.........)